Denise blushed, then pointed at Sean. “It was him.”
Steven paused when he heard this.
He was willing to believe this; he knew his sister better than anyone.
Even though his parents had treated Denise as a tool all these years, they still gave him the best, and she never once had to raise a finger to clean her room or do chores. He was certain that she did not even know how.
His distaste toward Sean began to dissipate a little at this realization. He furrowed his brow, glancing at Sean. “Tell me what happened last night.”
“I should be the one to do that.”
Denise sighed. “Last night…”
She closed her eyes and began describing what had happened the day before. “After what happened at the hotel, I went to the slums and was stopped on the way by Sean.
“At that time, I was in so much despair that I ignored his advice and explanations. He was so upset that…”
Her face flushed red as she continued, “He told me that if I truly wanted to waste my life away and give myself to a man, I should do it with him, since he’s cleaner than the other men out there, and that would be a plus to me. That’s why we…”
Steven raised his eyebrows. “So you came here?”
Denise nodded, still blushing.
Steven was outraged by this and immediately slammed the table in fury. “How dare you say you didn’t take advantage of my sister?”
“She consented to it, so how can you say I took advantage of her?”
Sean shifted into a more comfortable position in his chair and smiled. “She was so irrational last night that if I hadn’t intervened, another man would’ve taken advantage of her by now.”
With that, he shrugged and added, “Besides, if it weren’t for me, none of us would ever find out that Denise and Thomas never slept together at all.”
Both Steven and Gwen widened their eyes in shock upon hearing this.
Steven was so stunned by this that he could not even speak. After a long pause, he furrowed his brow and muttered, “What did you just say? Denise and Thomas…”
If Denise had not slept with Thomas, it would not have ruined Thomas’ relationship with Yannie, which angered him so much that he tried to get revenge on Denise by threatening her to sleep with other men.
“Nothing happened that day at all.”
Sean let out a chuckle, then turned to glance first at Denise, then at Steven. “Your parents must’ve taught her how to seduce men, but they forgot to teach her one important thing; how sexual intercourse is supposed to happen.”
With that, he flung open the covers, revealing a patch of blood on the sleek white sheets.
Gwen and Steven’s jaws dropped at this sight.
“This…”
Gwen frowned and instinctively glanced at Denise. “What’s this?”
Did Denise not sleep with Thomas just two days ago? If so, how could she have given her virginity to Sean?
Besides, even though Thomas did not have any recollection of what happened that day, Yannie had clearly heard suggestive noises coming from inside Denise’s room, which was pretty self–explanatory, so how could…
Denise bit her lip when she noticed the puzzled look on Gwen’s face, then took out her phone from her pocket and said, “The noises Yannie heard was this…”
Gwen took the phone from her and pressed play on the video shown on the screen.
The cries of pleasure that emanated from the phone’s speaker shocked Gwen so much that she almost flung the phone away.
A split second later, she got ahold of herself and quickly turned off the video.
The entire room fell silent.
Gwen furrowed her brow and glanced once more at Denise. “So this was what Yannie heard that day? Why did you do this, then…?”
Denise bit her lip and closed her eyes. She was silent for a long time before finally saying, “Tina was the one who gave me this. She was worried that I wouldn’t be able to handle things on my own and that Thomas would wake up at any moment–despite being poisoned, we’re not too sure if the drug would work effectively on him–so she gave me this recording in advance.
“She wanted me to tie Yannie to the door and play this recording as soon as I entered the room. That way, everyone outside the room would immediately think that Thomas and I had slept together that day.”
Gwen was utterly stunned by this.
After a long time, she let out a sigh and replied, “So it was all just a ruse, but since you and Thomas didn’t end up sleeping with each other at all, why did you apologize to him? Not only that, but you almost lost your dignity last night…”
Gwen was unwilling to believe that any of this was true.
If nothing happened that day, why did Denise act so remorseful? Why did she not choose to admit the truth?
If she had told the truth about her and Thomas, all of them, including Thomas and Yannie, would be freed of this turmoil. Not only that, but this would have saved Steven from almost getting beaten up by Thomas!
“The reason I didn’t admit that was…”
Denise let out a sigh. “That’s because I truly thought that Thomas and I had slept together, but after spending the night with Sean, I realized that what happened between Thomas and I wasn’t sexual intercourse at all…
“I…I might’ve sexually harassed Thomas without knowing it, but we didn’t end up having intercourse at all.”
Gwen rubbed her brow in exasperation. “Wait, hold on a minute. I’m finding this a little too hard to believe.”
Sean had anticipated Gwen’s reaction before this.
The truth was that he, too, was just as shocked as Gwen was when first discovering this.
Even though this, too, was his first time, he still possessed some basic knowledge about sexual education, and after everything was over, he tried to pursue the truth of what had happened between Denise and Thomas.
To his surprise…he discovered that no one had ever taught Denise anything regarding sexual health.
All her knowledge was restricted to what she had heard from other people, and even the movies she watched were age–restricted, with scenes of sexual promiscuity being removed from the films themselves.
According to the films she watched, ‘sexual intercourse’ constituted a man and a woman getting in bed together with their clothes on and nothing further.
Therefore, this was the limited knowledge she had regarding sexual health, and it was until her encounter with Sean the night before that she finally realized how wrong she had been.
As it turned out…nothing had happened between her and Thomas at all. As astounding as it sounded, this was the truth.
Denise bit her lip when she saw how stunned Gwen was and instinctively glanced in Steven’s direction.
She thought that Steven would be just as incredulous as Gwen, and might even suspect that she was lying about all this just to evade blame, but to her surprise…
He glanced earnestly at her and said, “I believe you.”
There was no one in this world he knew better than his own sister. Even though Denise appeared to be a spoiled brat who would stop at nothing to achieve what she wanted, he knew that she was a naive child at heart.
It was under the Hughes family and Tina’s influence that she lost herself and succumbed to greed.
However, since she broke free from Tina’s grasp and saw the Hughe family for their true colors, she finally rediscovered her true self.
“Steven…”
Denise could not stop her tears from falling when she saw the look in Steven’s eyes. She slumped into his arms and hugged him as tightly as she could. “Thank you. I knew that you’d never forget your promise. You promised me that even if every last person in this world hated and doubted me, you’d still believe in me. I thought that you’d forgotten this, but…”
It turned out that even after being in a coma for five years, Steven still remembered everything he had told her.
This was more than enough for her!
“I never forgot.”
Steven curled his lips into a smile. “You’re my sister. I would never lie to you, so why wouldn’t I keep my promise?”
He reached out to stroke her hair and added, “Since nothing happened between you and Thomas…you shouldn’t have to bear all this guilt and do anything more to reclaim yourself. Please don’t try to ruin yourself again, okay?”
Denise nodded. She sniffed and wiped the tears from her face before replying, “I…I won’t do this ever again. I’ll never try to hurt anyone for my own selfish gain anymore…and I promise I won’t put myself at harm in the future.”
She turned to glance at Sean, who was standing next to her. “I won’t be alone anymore. There’s going to be someone else who will look after me from now on.”
Steven furrowed his brow upon hearing this. He turned to stare coldly at Sean. “You…”
“We’re planning to get married.”
Sean lifted his head to stare earnestly back at Steven. “This is the reason Denise called you just now. She wanted to discuss our wedding with you.
“She said that even though the Hughes family adopted and raised her like their own, she no longer thought of them as family after how they treated her, and the only family she has left is you. Therefore, she wanted to discuss our wedding with you first before proceeding with any of the arrangements.
“You’re also going to be the only family from her side at our wedding.”
New Book: Back Home to Marry Off Myself
Loredana’s father left the family for his mistress, leaving them to fend for themselves abroad. When life was at its toughest, her father showed up with “good news” after 8 years of absence: To marry off Loredana to a paralyzed son of the wealthy Mendelsohn family.